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Records of Ellis Post No. 6, Grand Army of the Republic

RG-006

This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held
at the Grand Army of the Republic Civil War Museum and Library. Unless
otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in our
reading room, and not digitally available through the web.

The Grand Army of the Republic Ellis Post No. 6 was founded in 1879 by General Louis Wagner in the Germantown section of Philadelphia.
The Records of Ellis Post No. 6, Grand Army of the Republic, 1879-1939, consist of financial records, membership records,
and war memorial sketch books detailing members' Civil War service.

Biography/History

General Louis Wagner founded Ellis Post No. 6 in 1879. The Post was active in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century
in the Germantown section of Philadelphia. The post dispersed its funds in 1928 to its remaining twenty-two members, which
suggests the beginning of the disbanding of the Post.

Scope and Contents

The records of Ellis Post No. 6 cover the years 1879 to 1937 (bulk 1879-1908). They are arranged in four series: Financial
Records, Membership Records, General File, and War Memorial Sketch Books. The records consist of three bound volumes, one
folder, and seven binders. The seven binders contain member applications and are maintained separately from the main record
group. It is not known how the G.A.R. acquired the records or if additional records survived or existed.

Series I: Financial Records: The Financial Records series consists of one member account book covering the years 1879 to 1884, with some information that
dates to 1904. The member account book lists names of individual members and records their dues payments.

Series II: Membership Records: The Membership Records series consists of member applications that are housed in binders that are maintained separately from
the rest of the record group. They member application forms and related records such as transfer cards, applications for admission
to the Soldiers and Sailors Home, Proof of Service certificates, and correspondence. The applications document the lives and
military service of applicants for membership in the Post.

The records are sleeved, filed alphabetically in binders, and indexed. The Ellis Post No. 6 applications consist of seven
binders organized as follows: A-C, D-G, H-K, L-M, N-R, S-U, and V-Z. There are over a hundred applications within each of
the binder. There is an index to the series compiled by Eugene Stackhouse. Tipped into the V-Z binder is 1928 correspondence
that discusses dividing the funds of the Post to the remaining members, memorial publications for 1921 and 1937, a financial
report for 1928, and correspondence.

Series III: General File: This series contains one file of miscellaneous items including a record of which members completed a war memorial sketch form,
a newspaper clipping about the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War (S.U.V.C.W.), and a program booklet from a May 1917
memorial service.

Series IV: Post History: The Post History series consists of two bound war memorial sketch books. The books record in detail the history of Post members?
service in the Civil War as well as information on their membership in the G.A.R. The information in the sketch books was
originally recorded on a memorial war sketch form, which the Post Historian used to compile the memorial war sketch book.

The volumes are entitled Personal War Sketches of the Members of Ellis Post No. 6 of Germantown, Philadelphia. Each volume
contains three hundred forms to be completed, but the majority of the pages are not completed. There is an index at the beginning
listing the names of members in the volume. Each member has his own page. A few of the original memorial war sketch forms
are tipped into the volume. A section of the volume entitled Resolutions contains information on the deaths of members.

Sponsor

This preliminary finding aid was created by staff of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania?s Hidden Collections Initiative
for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories (HCI-PSAR) using data provided by the Grand Army of the Republic Civil War Museum
and Library. The HCI-PSAR project was made possible by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Access Restrictions

Contact the Grand Army of the Republic Museum and Library for information about accessing collection.

Processing Information note

The records were rough sorted and placed in archival boxes by board members and volunteers of the GAR Civil War Museum & Library
in 2008. In 2009-2010 they received preliminary processing by Archival Consultant Jack McCarthy and Intern Megan Atkinson,
working on a project funded by grants from the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission and National Endowment for the
Humanities. This finding aid is the result of that project. The grant funds allowed for only minimal processing and very little
re-housing of the records; as noted above, the records require more thorough processing.

The finding aid created by McCarthy and Atkinson was converted to the EAD format in 2011-2012 as part of the Historical Society
of Pennsylvania?s Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories (HCI-PSAR), funded by a grant
from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.